The Chairperson of the Health Committee is calling for public submissions on the Water Services Bill. The bill aims to
ensure that drinking water suppliers provide safe drinking water to consumers. It seeks to do this by providing:
· a regulatory framework for drinking water that is consistent with internationally accepted best practice
· a risk management framework for source water that would enable risks to be identified, managed, and monitored
· processes that would enable the regulation of drinking water to be proportionate to the scale and level of complexity
and risk of each drinking water supply
· mechanisms that would develop and maintain knowledge and expertise among suppliers of drinking water and across the
water services sector
· a framework that would continuously and progressively improve the quality of water services.
The bill would repeal Part 2A of the Health Act 1956, which relates to drinking water, and replace it with a stand-alone
Act. It would also make amendments to several other Acts, which relate to implementing the Government’s decision to
comprehensively reform the drinking water regulatory system.
Tell the Health Committee what you think
Make a submission on the bill by midnight on 2 March 2021.For more details about the bill: